


Human

by safety_dancer



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:10:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4830278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/safety_dancer/pseuds/safety_dancer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They're only humans</p>
            </blockquote>





	Human

idea from the song Human by Christina Perri.   
Codes and clues swam in front of his eyes. Tim rubbed tiredly at his temples. He’d been awake for three days, keeping up strength by drinking coffee and eating an energy bar every now and again. His eyes hurt, his head was pounding, but he couldn’t just quit because of that. He needed to finish this case. Needed it solved. Bruce was counting on him, and he couldn’t let him down. Bruce would be disappointed in him if he failed, if he gave up.   
You aren’t a machine, his mind told him, you’re only human.  
He tossed back the last of the cold cup of coffee, stretched, and went back to breaking the lines of code.   
~~~  
Dick hated attending galas and charity balls. It was more tiring than a night of crime-fighting. Cameras flashed all around him, reporters clamored for even the smallest sentence from him. No, not from him. From Richard Grayson Wayne, son of Brucie Wayne, a prince of Gotham. Here, in the swirling craziness of society, no one cared about Dick. No one cared about Dick Grayson. They only wanted the playboy with the glittery smiles, beautiful words spilling out, none meaningful.   
Richard wasn’t Dick, he wasn’t even Nightwing. Richard was a pretender. Fake smiles, fake laughter. Fake.   
But he had to do this. It was part of the job.   
So he plastered the smile on his face, talked to reporters, laughed at jokes that weren’t funny, because he could take it.   
This isn’t you, his mind whispered, you aren’t this rich boy they treat as a god. You’re only human.  
~~~  
Gotham was never quiet. She always required saving. She forever would need a knight to come to the rescue.  
Bruce was tired. He felt it in his bones, in his soul. He was tired of this nightly ritual. Sometimes he wondered what would happen if he just stopped. Hung up the cowl, and lived a normal life. He wondered, but then always threw that thought into the wind. Gotham would crumble without him. Those villains and rouges would take over and slaughter innocents, the innocents he swore to protect on that horrid night all those years ago.   
People thought that Batman was untouchable, a legend, an entity that protected them in the night. They didn’t seem to realize that there was a man underneath that cowl. A tired man.   
A human.   
~~~  
Pain washed over his body, and Jason sucked in a breath, but kept up the fight. He needed to do this. Rid Crime Alley of all its filth. He’d felt worse before, he could keep going.   
The fight ended quickly, but Jason was bleeding. Bleeding outside, and inside as well. Not physically, but it felt like his soul was bleeding. This took so much, and it seemed that nothing ever came of it. Sure, he saved people every day, but was it really worth it? They would just get into more trouble the next day, or they themselves were the trouble.   
There was only so much of this routine that he could take. This task would take so many people, all working together, and he was only one.   
Only one human.   
~~~  
Damian curled up into himself on the bench. The park was busy on this beautiful fall evening. Kids were screaming happily as they chased each other, knocking one another into leaf piles as their parent watched with fond smiles.   
He wanted to be like that sometimes. He wanted to experience a normal kid’s life. He wanted to see how it felt to have both his parents smiling proudly at him as he caught the football his father threw.   
No, it was never to be. He was living the life of an adult, running over rooftops and bringing down crooks night after night. Bruce would never smile at him like that for something so mundane. For executing a perfect combination of hits to bring someone down? Yeah, he’d earn that smile. Never from his mother, though. He would not see a smile like that from his mom, unless maybe he became the assassin heir she wanted.   
That was the thing, wasn’t it? Mother wanted a killer, one that would cater to her every wish. Father wanted someone who would follow him without question, a little solider.   
He was neither of those. He only wished to be himself, wanted to feel free to give in to childish whims he sometimes felt, but they expected him to act like the adult he claimed to be.   
He felt like a robot, programmed to be perfect for those who wished to use him.   
He wasn’t.  
He was only human.


End file.
